Celebrating the 4th of July

We made the holiday last for the weekend. It started off Friday night with our annual picnic in Willow Park in Logan. Carlin and her kids were there from Houston which made it fun for Shannon and her kids.

We then went to making our rockets. It does create a good gathering around the table asking for pipes and tape. There were some pretty good rockets this year.

After the rockets it was time to head up to USU for the concert and fireworks. There was a beautiful sunset to enjoy and the band was a Journey tribute band which was really good.

Then it was time to settle down for some serious fire works.

After the fire works there was a laser show to music and then our watermelon back at the car before we headed home.
























The 4th was on a Monday so we went down to Harrisville Road and watched the bike parade that the neighborhood has. Of course the best group was the grandkids.

We then had breakfast and went to the Farr West Parade. We had a picnic in the afternoon and then back to Farr West in the evening for fireworks. It was a great holiday weekend.

Bringing June to an end

The month was hot and then normal then hot again. You never knew what you were going to get. There were some evening storms which made for pretty sunsets. Now however there are homes which are also included in our sunsets.

The Beach Boys came to Layton and even though we did not have tickets we sat outside the theater and with my California Girl we had fun, fun fun, and some good vibrations.



The next day was the air show at Hill A.F.B. The day was cooler than it had been all week and made for a pleasant time even though Cindy's knee was giving her problems going in and out. The crowds jammed the streets with people waiting in their cars up to two hours to get on base. We took the bus at the Clearfield station and were on base within 10 minutes. That was the way to go. First you walk by the large cargo jets and wonder how anything so large can fly.

We watched the Golden Knights parachute team.

















Then there were several small stunt planes doing all sorts of tricks.

Finally it was time for the Thunderbirds. There is nothing like being under those planes and feeling the roar of the engines as they fly by you.

We left the show a little early because Nathan was receiving his endowments in the evening. There was no one around the B-1 bomber this time.

We made it home and then off to the temple. I had just got a new recommend but when we went to the temple they said it had not been activated.I sent Cindy on while we got this worked out. They came back a little later and said they had talked to Brother Clark in the bishopric and everything was ok. The next day I thanked Brother Clark and he said it was the strangest thing because he was up in Idaho and there was no cell service and all of a sudden his phone range. There was nothing to indicate who the call was from, but he answered it and it was the temple. It made me realize one of those tender mercies had happened and I was unaware of it until after it happened.  

Beginning of June

We started the summer off with a Jennings picnic, but as usual on Monday was a large wind storm so the picnic was brought inside Nic and Shannon's house. Jason and Hyunjoo were here from Texas to visit family as Harrison would be leaving for his mission on Wednesday and Matthew and Monica would be leaving soon after as they serve as mission president. Even though we were inside it was a good time to be together.

The next day Cindy and I took Shannon and the grandkids to Goblin Valley for a couple of days. Shannon drove since the Durango needs to get fixed as the water pump went out Sunday when we went to Brad and Annette's baby blessing and all the fluid leaked out as we pulled into the church parking lot.  We stopped at Price on our way to Goblin Valley and went to the Natural History Museum to see all the dinosaur bones.

From there it was on to our camp. It was a hot day but clouds began to form to give us some shade above the cliffs. Payton went exploring as Connor was not feeling good. I went with her and we found a small little Canyon we called Chocolate Drizzle because of the mud flows on the walls of the canyon. Payton then had to show Grandma her discovery.

The next morning Connor was feeling better and we went over to run, climb and hide in the goblins.

We went to the east side of the valley and found a resting place in the cliffs and in the shade. There was even a perfect bed to lay down on.

After that we went back and had lunch and then drove over to see some petroglyphs and an old uranium miners house. It seems more of the walls of the house have collapsed and with it some of the logs that were the beams of the roof.  This side trip allowed us to cool off in the car before our next hike.

We then went to Little Wild Horse Canyon. Things have changed as the road is paved all the way to the developed trail head. It use to be a dirt road and we could drive up the wash to near the mouth of the canyon. We started up the wash but Connor had lost his energy and I don't know that this was fun for him but he did it anyway.

Of course the fun part of the hike is the narrow slots which are also much cooler in temperature.

The next morning was the five hour drive heading home so we could get to Connor and Payton's softball games.